At 52 years old, Simon Le Bon is too old to be a Wild Boy. And I guess he needs to stop singing like one too, because voice problems have officially canceled Duran Duran's planned summer tour.

"This has been an extremely difficult decision to make as the injury I seem to have sustained is an internal one and so no-one can tell me exactly how long it’s going to take to mend completely," Simon said on the official Duran Duran website. "Every day I can see an improvement and each week I recover a part of my upper range. What the doctor’s don’t want me to do, however, is risk any further damage, so they are saying I need to take some more time away from shows to get back to full strength. If we knew exactly when that might be, we wouldn’t have to let this entire run of dates go, but what we feel we can’t keep doing is moving shows piecemeal – as it’s just not fair on the fans."

Doctors believe that Le Bon damaged the muscles controlling his vocal chords during a show in Cannes in May, causing him to temporarily lose the top part of his range.

How this affects Duran Duran's plans for a fall tour of the U.S. is uncertain. The band has two gigs scheduled for September and October, and talk is that more dates were coming soon. An Oct. 14 date in Atlanta gave Florida fans hope that DD will play here. And with the band largely booking venues of about 2,500 seats, several Tampa Bay area spots would be perfect fits, including Clearwater's Ruth Eckerd Hall, Tampa's Straz Center and St. Petersburg's Mahaffey Theater. It's been forever since Duran Duran played Tampa Bay, so don't disappoint us, Simon.

About this blog

Relive the '80s music, movies and culture with Tampa Bay Times correspondent Steve Spears. A teen during the greatest decade ever, Steve is obsessed with everything from Duran Duran to Journey, John Hughes to John Cusack, and parachute pants to big hair.